Multibody approach for railway dynamic analysis

Abstract

In the work presented, a computational tool used for the dynamic simulation of railway vehicle systems was developed using multibody systems formulations. The model based on the multibody techniques developed by Shabana. With respect to other exciting methodologies the proposed one make use of a combined frame of references that permit the use of independent coordinates, with out the possibility to have singularity configurations depending on the rotation sequence. The combined frame of references used as a base for the formulation and modeling of wheel-rail contact problem with high precision. The program was designed for considering with a flexible form the different configuration of railway vehicles. The main structure of the program has the ability of making changes for enhancement of the wheel-rail contact model or the implementation of dynamic structure of the track, which considered to be future aspects for a PHD dissertation. The model used was applied to make a simulation for single bogie , also for a complete vehicle with two bogies. The obtained results of the dynamic response for a defined track composed of, tangent segment, transition curve which take the form of a clothoid curve, and finally circular curve with constant radius. The calculations were made for different velocities, lower than the critical in which the vehicle responded in stable form, and higher than the critical at which the instability of the vehicle was studied.